Albatross Encounter Kaikoura

14/10/2024

Indian Ocean yellow-nosed mollymawk

This young bird was sighted over this weekend on our tours.

An infrequent but annual visitor to waters - it’s always great to see them.

📷: Our Skipper; Gary

11/10/2024

It’s been an interesting weekend of debate following our post on Friday about this beautiful bird.

We have had some experts of the belief that we had perhaps sighted a juvenile grey-headed albatross and then a number of others of the opinion that it was a black-browed albatross.

It’s been great to see the dialogue play out and we always appreciate some healthy discussion!

What do you think? 🤔

Image credit: Albatross Encounter Skipper; Kevin Rigarlsford

29/07/2024

Serenity.

📷: Our guest .nz 👌



Repost .nz:

“I was very fortunate to head out recently on an Albatross tour with and it far exceeded expectations.
I would strongly recommend it.

There were plenty of birds and dolphins around however the Wandering Albatross was one of the main highlights for me.

It’s quite a surreal feeling to have these massive birds gliding all around you.

The Wandering Albatross is one of the larger Albatrosses with a wingspan of a whopping 3m (a standard door height in NZ is around 2m for reference)

These birds spend the majority of their life on the water and will only come on land to breed.
They can travel vast distances in a single day, up to 900km.

Fun fact:
The birds have mastered the art of gliding and can soar for several hours without a single flap of their wings.
They are so efficient at flying that they actually use up less energy in the air than while sitting in a nest.”

04/07/2024

Hutton’s shearwater 🩵

Whilst we think every day should be a day; July 3rd was This day marks when the extinct Great Auk Pinguinis was last seen in 1844, and it is now a date set to raise awareness of the ongoing conservation threats to seabird populations.

A fitting time then perhaps to highlight our very special local species. Endemic to are in decline and without protection this extraordinary species could one day be lost forever.

To find out more about these precious birds and the work being done to protect them check out The Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust @ huttonsshearwater.org.nz

03/07/2024

19/06/2024

🩵 World Albatross Day 🩵



“Image Repost 📷: Just two wanderers, enjoying a moment together. “

13/06/2024

Duet

This captured by our guest
👌🩵

06/06/2024

Who’s looking at who? 👀

This from a captured by our Skipper Gary 👌

31/05/2024

Antarctic Fulmar 🤍

It’s the season for these beautiful visitors to our coastline. Sighted on recent tours is a mid sized fulmarine petrel, typically seen off the between May and September

Often seen alone out at sea, Gary was fortunate to see two individuals at the same time! Hard to capture well; but swipe right to check out this rare event 👀

📷: Our Skipper, Gary 👌

22/04/2024

White-capped albatross at Kaikoura. Classified as near threatened, white-capped albatross are endemic to New Zealand's remote Subantarctic Islands. The main threat too this species of lesser albatross, also known as mollymawks, is longline fishing.
📸 Dennis Buurman

08/03/2024

🫶

29/02/2024

Reflecting 💙



This moment captured by our guest 📷👌

14/02/2024

When albatross show the love 🫶🫶



Repost from our guest
“I’d asked them to do something different” 😀👍

06/02/2024

When it’s on! 💪

Stunning set of images from our guest 👌

Repost: “Argy bargy at the back of the boat!”

02/02/2024